


i'm certain you remember

by NatureTheZafara



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Axel being creepy, Bitterness, Character Study, Gen, Lexaeus being Lexaeus, Pre-Kingdom Hearts I, Reminiscing, Silence, Speculation, i honestly don't know what to tag, khsecretsanta 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 21:57:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5514764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatureTheZafara/pseuds/NatureTheZafara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What you say - or <i>don't</i> say - can and will be held against you.</p>
<p>(or: in which axel tries to hold a grudge and lexaeus really isn't one for talking.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'm certain you remember

**Author's Note:**

> For [onesceneship](onesceneship.tumblr.com) for the khsecretsanta even on Tumblr - Merry Christmas!
> 
> Warning for implied (recalled?) heart-stabbing and not-sure-if-it-works-in-canon speculation.

Radiant Garden feels strange.  Or perhaps ‘strange’ isn’t the right word to describe what he feels. And ‘feels’ perhaps isn’t the right word for whatever this is. And ‘Radiant Garden’ isn’t the right name for this place, either. Axel scans the crumbled remains of his old home before him, his green eyes striking yet dull at everything he sees. Even duller is the state of the world – aside from the aforementioned ruins of the grand old castle (a memory flickers into his mind – if he had a heart, he’d chuckle bitterly at the recollection), there’s nothing else but a towering wall of ever-flowing water surrounding the ruins. It’s been a good few years since he’s been to Hollow Bastion, and so far he’s seen, nothing seems to have changed. Lexaeus steps out of the corridor of darkness after him; his expression is just as unchanging as the ruins before them.

“Geez, the more I visit the more I see why people call this place Hollow Bastion now,” Axel drawls, partially to his companion and partially to himself. He puts his hands on his hips and looks up at the expanse of water behind the ruins. “Gets emptier every time.” Lexaeus merely grunts.

“What? No words about our little home world? No ‘It’s good to be back’ or ‘looks different from what I remember’?” Axel makes sure to inject a tone of bitter mockery to his speech, even though deep down he knows he couldn’t possibly care less. The memory warrants it; Lexaeus warrants it, or at least that’s what the memory tells him. Yet again the giant doesn’t respond, instead keeping his gaze fixed on the castle ruins. Axel rolls his eyes. “Should’ve expected it,” he mumbles, scratching the back of his head.

“You know we’re here on a mission, VIII,” Lexaeus finally speaks. His voice is gruff and firm, quiet yet somehow managing to beat the water wall’s roars. “There’s no time for false sentimentality.”

“Not even false guilt?,” Axel goads. Lexaeus turns and narrows his eyes at him, but he remains silent. Axel can’t help but smirk. They both know he can’t answer that question.

“The Heartless lies within the castle,” Lexaeus says with finality. He steps ahead of Axel as he speaks, barely pushing the redhead out of his way. “It’s in the left atrium of the royal library. That’s where the book Vexen needs is.” He casts Axel an aside glance. “I’m certain you remember.”

“Of course,” Axel deadpans, still smirking. He considers making a quip about the past – **_he_** _caught Lea and Isa sneaking in through the library window, remember?_ – but decides against it.

 

For the entirety of their walk through the castle ruins Lexaeus doesn’t speak. Had he a heart, Axel would be unnerved by the silence, even annoyed. Of course he doesn’t expect anything less – it’s _Lexaeus_ , after all – but still. Why couldn’t they have assigned someone else to go here with him? He runs through his mind other possible candidates – no way would he want the other “founders” here (the memory warrants it); Demyx would been interesting to bring here, with all the water and everything; not sure about Luxord; Marluxia’s a creep; the new girl, Larxene, she seems fun, although potentially life-threatening, if what the others say about her have anything to go by. Hell, even Saïx would be more interesting to be with; at least with him Axel knows he would have _things_ to say.

Every now and then Axel would take a glance at the giant ahead of him, waiting if something in these ruins would make him say something, _anything_. Doesn’t anything in this castle – the very castle, the very world _he_ and _his friends_ had destroyed – spark anything? Lexaeus himself doesn’t make Axel feel anything, and neither does the memory of what he had done – but the memory itself wants something done. Everything he sees in these ruins, every stairway and broken column and broken stained glass window, every Heartless in the way that they fight off, warrants it.

 

“Man, look at this place.” Axel finally allows himself to speak again once they enter the library. The light from outside fills the room with a warm yellow glow; how deceptive. The redhead looks up at Lexaeus and smirks again. “It reminds me of that one time Aeleus caught Lea and Isa sneaking in through one of the windows and—”

Lexaeus silences him with an open palm. “The book’s over there,” he says in a low voice, summoning Skysplitter into his hand. “Be on your guard.” Axel frowns and summons Eternal Flame, sighing sharply as he does so.

“This Heartless’ hearing is sensitive,” Lexaeus says, as if he can see Axel complaining inside his head. “Silence will be an advantage.”

Oh, of course. Silence is an advantage against enemies and victims alike. Axel understands.

 

As expected, the Heartless is found in the library’s left atrium. It’s a huge one, almost ghost-like, hovering over a fallen bookcase as if it were a guard dog. It doesn’t notice Lexaeus and Axel entering the atrium, nor does it notice when Lexaeus gives Axel the signal to throw his chakrams at the weak point in its back. The surprise attack is successful; the Heartless is significantly weakened by the time Axel and Lexaeus face it head on. The battle is still a long and hard one, with a lot of their attacks focusing on the target’s weak point, but before too long the Heartless writhes and finally fades away into darkness.

Axel summons Eternal Flame away and rests his hands on his bended knees. It’s not the hardest battle he’d fought, but it still took a lot out of him. Lexaeus meanwhile merely rests Skysplitter across his shoulders and huffs.

“You’re not tired after _that_?,” Axel pants. “That thing took so freakin’ long to fight!” He shakes his head. What he wouldn’t give for a nice sea salt ice cream stick right now. “Be glad they paired you up with me and not with Demyx, ‘cause man, if you got ‘im, you wouldn’t hear the end of it.”

Lexaeus only grunts in response. _Of course._ Axel rolls his eyes.

“Whatever, let’s find the book and go.” Axel turns his back on his companion as he speaks. “The sooner we do that, the sooner we can RTC. I really need to get Saïx off my ba... _Oh_.”

Axel walks over to the left wall of the atrium and slowly smiles – an empty, dangerous smile. One of the windows of the room is slightly ajar ( _just how we left it_ , he thinks to himself). Lexaeus lifts his head up from searching the fallen bookcase. He’s looking at the window, too. They both recognize it; they both know.

“Well hey, would you look at that.” Axel almost sounds like he’s purring. He turns to Lexaeus and jerks his thumb at the open window. He almost sounds cheerful. “You remember, right? You remember that time when Lea and Isa sneaked into the castle through _this_ window, right?”

Lexaeus doesn’t say anything.

“Man, I bet you do,” Axel chuckles nonchalantly. He shakes his head. “I remember it too – everything about it. Lea and Isa didn’t even see you coming – ‘ _silence is an advantage_ ’, isn’t it? Yep, sure was. Y’know, I’m surprised they didn’t even see you, considering how big you were. Are.”

Lexaeus doesn’t say anything.

“It’s all coming back to me now. You calling Captain Dreadlocks over and taking them both to that secret laboratory of yours. You both sounded _dead_.” Axel’s eyes dull even further as he speaks. “Weren’t even using your real names anymore. ‘Xaldin’? ‘Lexaeus’? Heh. You brought Lea and Isa down, then our glorious leader was there, and so was Xigbar and Vexen and little kid Zexion. All of you looked so, so dead.” Axel smiles. “Then Xehanort – _Xemnas_ – got that sharp pointy black Keyblade of his and...” He mimics the action of stabbing something into his own chest.

“And now here we are. Axel and Saïx. And everyone else too.” Axel looks Lexaeus dead in the eye. “You remember, right?”

Silence falls over them. Axel lets the mask slip as he continues to stare down the giant before him; he is as dead, as silent, as Lexaeus truly is. And he knows Lexaeus won’t answer. Lexaeus – _Aeleus_ – will never answer.

After a long time, Lexaeus only shakes his head. He goes back to searching the fallen bookcase, getting up once he finds what they need. It’s a book on the replication process.

Then he finally speaks. His expression never changes.

“We’re done here. Let’s head back.”

Axel can only smirk to himself when Lexaeus turns away to summon a corridor of darkness. _Of course._ He shouldn’t have expected anything less.

 

But he certainly has a lot to tell Saïx.


End file.
